By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Outnumbered and outgunned, the Sitka High Wolves struggled through a four-day travel tournament in Fairbanks last week.
“We’re just so glad to be home and in a warmer place to be in front of family and friends,” Lady Wolves coach Sondra Lundvick said.
Temperatures in the Interior remained well below zero for the duration of the tournament.
In an exhausting four days of play, Wednesday through Saturday, the Lady Wolves fell 36-28 to Monroe Catholic, 60-58 in a close fight to Barrow, 63-31 to 4A giant Lathrop, but won 60-35 against Eielson.
On the boys side, Sitka beat Barrow 57-45, but lost to Eielson 53-49, to Monroe 46-28, and to Lathrop 61-33.
Sitka’s girls team could take only seven players north.
With no bench to speak of, Lundvick said “being able to withstand four straight days in a row without having much rest is tough.”
Tiffany Elefante, the team’s only senior this year, agreed, saying “it was good, kind of a struggle though because we didn’t have a lot of people.”
Junior Jocelyn Brady said “we had to learn to fight through the tiredness and just play.”
The Lady Wolves relied on their freshmen to fill gaps in their ranks. Ava Brady and Kaleena Tucker were up north and playing hard, their coach said.
Lundvick added that the minus 30 degree chill did little to help her team out.
Elefante said that against Eielson “we did really good on offense, but our defense, we could have done way better because we let one player dominate their boards.”
Speaking about the Monroe game, Elefante said, “we could have had that game. They’re going to come back again, so we hope to redeem ourselves.”
In the Barrow game, a late 3-pointer by Tawny Smith brought the match within 2, but the Wolves couldn’t close the gap.
“We stayed positive through most of it, and that really helped us to play even harder,” Jocelyn Brady said.
Elefante said she was looking forward to the Kenai games, Friday and Saturday.
“We just need to talk on defense, and when a shot goes up we need someone back for safety on the other side,” she said.
While the boys team was not as short-handed as the girls, their ten players also faced tough teams up north.
The first game was against Ben Eielson Wednesday, which ended in an overtime loss for the Wolves.
“We were up the whole game. We were up by 12 going into the fourth quarter,” coach Jarrett Hirai said. He noted that as the final quarter opened, his team seemed hesitant.
Eielson pulled ahead, but “we hit a 3-pointer at the end to bring it into overtime,” the coach said.
The next day against Monroe, the match was not a close one, ending with a Sitka loss, 46-28.
“We just struggled with the amount of pressure they put on us,” Hirai said.
But the coach noted that his team’s attitude shifted after the sharp loss to Monroe Catholic.
“The team saw how disconnected they were from the Monroe game, and said that ‘This can’t happen, obviously we need to make this better.’ And moving forward I think they played the next game very in tune with each other. Very unselfish, on their toes, willing to compete, and we had a good outcome,” Hirai told the Sentinel.
Against Barrow, the Wolves made about half their shots, and reduced their turnovers by a sizable margin, with only 16 all game. In previous games, the Wolves have often turned the ball over more than 20 times.
Sophomore varsity player Clay Pearson said “we had a lot of really good competition. We had a really good game against Barrow, a good game against Ben Eielson.”
The Wolves fell to 4A giant Lathrop following the win over Barrow.
“They were a step and a half ahead of everything they wanted to do on us,” the coach said.
Junior Joe Harris said he thinks playing powerhouse teams helps Sitka in the long run.
“With all these losses against 4A teams, and schools that are much bigger than us, it definitely helps in our bracket to give us a head start on playing against people that are faster and sometimes stronger than us,” Harris said in an interview.
Games against Kenai are underway today through Saturday. The schedule is below.
Today at MEHS
4:30 p.m. Boys MEHS JV vs. Sitka JV
6 p.m. Boys Varsity MEHS vs. Kenai
7:30 p.m. Girls Varsity MEHS vs. Kenai
Friday at SHS
4 p.m. Girls C Sitka vs. Kenai
5:30 p.m. Girls Varsity Sitka vs. Kenai
7 p.m. Boys Varsity Sitka vs. Kenai
Friday at MEHS
5:30 p.m.. Boys C Sitka vs. MEHS
Saturday at SHS
4 p.m. JV Boys Sitka vs. Kenai
5:30 p.m. Boys Varsity Sitka vs. Kenai
7 p.m. Girls Varsity Sitka vs. Kenai
Saturday at MEHS
5:30 p.m. Boys C Sitka vs. MEHS
Whatever comes of the regular season, there are only two 3A basketball teams in Southeast. And both are in Sitka.
The Wolves and the Braves play against each other for the first time in the season on Tuesday at Mt. Edgecumbe. It will be the first indication for how the Region V match-up will turn out in March. For the girls teams, the first SHS-MEHS game is set for Feb. 8.
Pearson and Harris were excited. For Pearson, the Battle of the Bridge will be “the best game in Sitka, definitely a good game to come and watch.”
